Rex Tillerson, in Japan, Says U.S. Needs ‘Different Approach’ to North KoreaAt a time of multiplying tensions in Asia, Rex W. Tillerson, the American secretary of state, began his first major foreign trip in Japan and said on Thursday that the United States needed a “different approach” to North Korea’s escalating nuclear threat, though he declined to give specifics.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo after talks with Japan’s foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, Mr. Tillerson said, “The diplomatic and other efforts of the past 20 years to bring North Korea to a point of denuclearization have failed,” noting that during those 20 years, the United States had provided $1.35 billion in assistance to North Korea to encourage it to abandon its nuclear program.

“Part of the purpose of my visit to the region is to exchange views on a new approach,” Mr. Tillerson added, saying he would highlight the issue in Seoul, the South Korean capital, and Beijing, the next stops on his trip....Analysts were hoping to use Mr. Tillerson’s remarks as guidance on the options that the United States might consider in responding to the nuclear threat from North Korea. American officials are reviewing options that could include a pre-emptive military strike and renewed talks with North Korea.

But when asked for details of a new approach, he did not answer.

...Mr. Tillerson continued the cloistered style of his previous brief foreign trips, to Bonn, Germany, and Mexico City. He did not visit the American Embassy to meet State Department staff, choosing instead to rest and take briefings at his hotel in the morning before his meeting with Mr. Kishida.

Why bother going to the embassy when there is no ambassador yet...Tillerson's dialog with China will be the most crucial in regards to NorKor...If he is planning to float economic sanctions on them, a move done on them in the past although it hasn't deeply affected the status of NorKor as China's "cat's paw", he might be trying to shore up So. Korea and Japanese support for them, since they could be subject to backlash from China also.

And yes, more NYT analysis but...I understand the copy-pasta controversy so I won't paste it all, but I think it is important to observe the possible outcomes of defanging the State Dept...

Rex Tillerson, America’s Low-Energy Top Diplomat

This is part of a pattern. Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Greece all visited the State Department in recent days for bilateral meetings. There were photos of handshakes, but the secretary had nothing to say about how the United States views the challenges these important allies face, or how it might help.

Last week, the State Department released its annual human rights report. Mr. Tillerson wrote an introduction but made no presentation of the report’s findings, another departure from past practice. The low-key rollout — interpreted as a downgrade of human rights as a policy priority — drew a sharp rebuke from Senator Marco Rubio....When he met Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia for the first time, the Kremlin, not exactly a paragon of open government, provided more details of his meeting than the State Department did. Without an American media contingent in Beijing, the Chinese government will fill in the blanks regarding their discussions with Mr. Tillerson.With the State Department muted, President Trump serves as the dominant voice of American foreign policy. “Are tweets policy?” the diplomatic corps has asked the chain of command at State. Who can tell? As a result, the United States now appears to have two, often conflicting foreign policies: one from Mr. Trump’s unscripted musings and another from his national security officials....In his address to Congress, the president used withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement as an applause line. Mr. Trump says the United States does not win anymore, but he wrongly interprets complexity as decline. Actually, America gets its way far more often than not, thanks not just to the projection of military power, but also to its globally deployed foreign service.

To career diplomats, there is nothing controversial about putting America first. They are ardent believers in American exceptionalism. Where Mr. Trump sees a zero-sum world, diplomats are trained to look at it in positive-sum terms. But the start of the Trump administration has left profound doubts within the ranks.

The State Department is uniquely positioned to help the Trump administration move beyond a fortress mentality. But to do so, the secretary of state needs to be more visible and vocal.

Not shedding a tear for the "globally deployed foreign service" but I think it is important to consider the implications of this, especially with state serving as the portal to the "Deep State" if you will...It seems that if the Deep State is pissed at Trump, he is definitely giving them, the various intelligence agency factions, a very long leash. Will the dogs run wild?

HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. Army soldiers finished wading across a stream in a rainforest in Hawaii, and they were soaked. Their boots and socks were water-logged and their clothes, hair and ears were caked with mud.

The soldiers were going through training at the first jungle school the Army has established in decades. The course is part of a program to train soldiers for exercises and potential combat on terrain that looks more like islands and nations in the Pacific than arid Afghanistan and the deserts of the Middle East.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Michael, deputy commander of the 25th Infantry Division, said the Army set up the school as its footprint was shrinking in Iraq and Afghanistan after more than a decade of war in those countries.

"The jungle school gives us that focus, it reinforces that we're in the Pacific," Michael said. "If you're in the 25th, you understand you got to fight in the tough environment of the Pacific."

Ever since the turn of the 20th century, the Army has fought in tropical rainforests. It spent years, for example, battling Filipino insurgents after the 1898 Spanish-American War. The Vietnam War was fought in the jungle.

The Army gave up its jungle training school in Panama in 1999 when the U.S. returned land there to the Panamanian government. Then jungle training lost priority in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks as the Army focused on preparing soldiers to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now, surviving and fighting in tropical rainforests has captured the Army's interest again. In 2013, it set up a jungle school at Schofield Barracks, a sprawling Army post some 30 miles west of the soft sands of Waikiki. Its dense woods have a stream soldiers can practice crossing and cliffs for rappelling.

First it needed instructors. The Army sent soldiers to military jungle schools in Brazil, Brunei and other tropical spots to reacquire long-lost skills. Instructors-in-training poured over old Army jungle manuals.

"We had to relearn everything," said Staff Sgt. Ascencion Lopez, who was one of the first instructors at the school, which is part of the 25th Infantry Division's Lightning Academy.

The soldiers quickly discovered their existing uniforms stood out among the trees and the fabric took too long to dry. The Army is currently developing a new uniform and boots specifically for the jungle. Instructors in Hawaii are testing out some early models.

The soldiers have also had to adjust how they carry their ammunition, canteens and other gear. In the desert, soldiers frequently strap gear on their chests so it's accessible while riding vehicles. But instructors recommend soldiers carry gear on their sides in the jungle so it won't get caught on roots and vines while they're maneuvering on the forest ground.

One day recently, Lopez watched soldiers from the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team in Fort Wainwright, Alaska, practice using a rope and pulley to cross a stream. The soldiers were attending the course to get ready for upcoming exercises in Malaysia, Thailand and other countries in the region.

Lopez tells soldiers to keep a dry change of clothes to wear at night and to pay special attention to drying out their feet. That's because feet won't heal if they're continually wet. A small cut will become infected and the skin will die.

The minute your feet go, you're done. You're not going to be able to function in the jungle," Lopez said.

Soldiers must also develop the mental stamina to persevere in a place where they're constantly wet, thick vegetation can hide the enemy and deadly animals may be lurking. (Though soldiers are spared threatening animals in Hawaii as the state has no snakes and the only native land mammal is a small, rare bat.)

"Soldiers that aren't as mentally tough — they're either going to find their toughness or they won't. But the jungle doesn't care either way," said Staff Sgt. Michael Johnson, another instructor.

The jungle school is an outgrowth of former President Barack Obama's "pivot" to Asia and the Pacific. It's still unclear whether President Donald Trump will maintain a similar emphasis.

Brian Price, a professor in diplomacy and military studies at Hawaii Pacific University, said the Army is training in the jungle so it will be ready before a crisis demands it."The Army has to train to fight everywhere — jungles, deserts, mountains and fair climates as well. This is kind of the missing piece of all that," he said.

Ahhh...the jungle...I understood the Vietnam War in an instance when visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels

The tunnels of Củ Chi are an immense network of connecting underground tunnels located in the Củ Chi District of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, and are part of a much larger network of tunnels that underlie much of the country. The Củ Chi tunnels were the location of several military campaigns during the Vietnam War, and were the Viet Cong's base of operations for the Tết Offensive in 1968.The tunnels were used by Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots during combat, as well as serving as communication and supply routes, hospitals, food and weapon caches and living quarters for numerous North Vietnamese fighters. The tunnel systems were of great importance to the Viet Cong in their resistance to American forces, and helped to counter the growing American military effort....A general order was issued by General Williamson, the Allied Forces Commander in South Vietnam, to all Allied forces that tunnels had to be properly searched whenever they were discovered. They began training an elite group of volunteers in the art of tunnel warfare, armed only with a gun, a knife, a flashlight and a piece of string. These specialists, commonly known as “tunnel rats”, would enter a tunnel by themselves and travel inch-by-inch cautiously looking ahead for booby traps or cornered PLAF.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%E1%BB%A7_Chi_tunnels

I went years ago but they show you this entrance, and laugh about big midwestern farm boys being told to wriggle into that little tunnel, armed only as stated above, and knowing about the brutal booby traps...War is truly hell...

But, jungle training now? Some in China I guess but certainly not in Russia or...Iran...

So what will it be...Watery sanctions or...the evil I mentioned above...Japan seems keen on a return to military activity...Oh but South Korea is having a little political shake-up...

Tackling the thorny issue of North Korean nuclear aggression is a key theme for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as he tours Asia this week, but he will have to tread carefully as he leaves Japan for South Korea on Friday, followed by China on Saturday.

President Donald Trump, known to elude conventional foreign policy, is expected to seek out new solutions to reign in a belligerent Pyongyang, instead of continuing former President Barack Obama's strategy of economic sanctions. Speaking in Tokyo on Thursday, Tillerson highlighted the need for a fresh approach, acknowledging that two decades of American efforts to denuclearize North Korea have failed.

But while Tokyo may be open to a more forceful stance, the same isn't true for Beijing and Seoul.

South Korea's new president and Chinese sovereignty concerns could emerge as key obstacles to Washington's goal of a unified, confrontational stance against North Korea....New South Korean policy

Left-leaning politician Moon Jae-In, seen as the front-runner for South Korea's presidential election on May 9, has urged for friendlier inter-Korean relations and criticized previous conservative governments for their heavy-handed, pro-sanction approach to North Korea.

"The likely new president opposes hardline approaches, he wants more engagement and isn't keen on accelerated deployment of THAAD," said Kingston, referring to the controversial American anti-missile technology. "Tillerson has a real tightrope to walk there."

For now, strategists agree that Tillerson's job is merely setting the stage for more concrete talks next month when Chinese President Xi Jinping meets Trump at a scheduled summit in Florida.

SLAD...please note it wasn't me who laughed about the unfortunate "tunnel rats", but maybe I am projecting onto the guide...I have lived in Vietnam over five years now and it is amazing, given the brutal process this country went through, to see and understand a little how the human spirit is amazingly buoyant...TBH, it also helps that the vast majority were actually born after the war, that their country "won", so they really have no prejudices, to a large degree, regarding what happened...The war, of course, and following diaspora helped to reduce the ages at the top too, of course...

HONOLULU (AP) — The U.S. Army soldiers finished wading across a stream in a rainforest in Hawaii, and they were soaked. Their boots and socks were water-logged and their clothes, hair and ears were caked with mud.

Solid piece of journalism. Thought provoking and informative. With all the fake news around nowadays, it's nice to see the AP maintaining such high standards.

Clear messaging delivered with objective, impartial style. No unspoken agenda to speak of. What else is there to say, anyway.

An excellent, authoritative example that all should try to emulate. Amateur outfits take note.

the central council demands immediate regulation of all sexual relations according to the views of international dadaism through establishment of a dadaist sexual center.

“Certainly we do not want for things to get to a military conflict,” Tillerson told reporters in Seoul on the second leg of his three-nation visit to Asia, his first to the region since taking office.

“We’ve been quite clear on that in our communications. But obviously, if North Korea takes actions that threaten the South Korean forces or our own forces, then that will be met with an appropriate response,” he added.

“Let me be very clear: The policy of strategic patience has ended,” he said, referring to the Obama administration's policy of trying to wait out the North Korean regime while pressing it with economic sanctions and covert actions.

Tillerson emphasized the need for maintaining economic sanctions on Pyongyang but also made clear that the Trump administration would not be limited to that approach.

“We’re exploring a new range of diplomatic, security and economic measures. All options are on the table,” he said.

Among the options would be to boost South Korea’s anti-missile defenses, a process that is underway, or to enable Japan to build an offensive missile capability. Japan’s 1947 Constitution, imposed by the United States, limits its military to defense only.

Washington also could reintroduce nuclear weapons to U.S. bases in South Korea to serve as a front-line deterrent. They were removed in 1991 under President George H.W. Bush as part of a post-Cold War effort to ease global nuclear tensions.

Previous administrations have considered a first strike against North Korean missile and nuclear facilities an option of last resort because it almost certainly would provoke a massive retaliation against South Korea and Japan. More than 75,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in those countries.

...

The bellicose language was not new but issuing the threat in Beijing, which the Trump administration hopes will help constrain Pyongyang, was notable. China has announced a ban on coal imports from North Korea, but analysts doubt Beijing will enforce the ban for fear of creating instability on its border.

For his part, President Trump declared on Twitter that North Korea was "behaving very badly" and dismissed a Chinese proposal to freeze North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs in exchange for a halt to U.S.-South Korean military exercises.

Tillerson’s remarks, standing with South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, came a day after he declared in Tokyo that two decades of attempts to block North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles had failed and that a “different approach” was required.

Earlier Friday, Tillerson toured the Demilitarized Zone, a heavily guarded buffer area between North and South Korea created after the 1953 armistice that halted fighting during the Korean War. The two nations have never signed a formal peace treaty.

A group of North Koreans, apparently tourists, waved from across the border during Tillerson’s visit. A helmeted North Korean soldier, just across the border, took pictures of Tillerson’s back as he posed with Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea.http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-fg-til ... story.html

I won't post any articles about Tillerson's final meetings in China, since nothing really came of them beyond, I guess, laying groundwork for the meeting with Trump and President Xi Jinping of China in a few months. I think this article sums up the lameness of TIllerson in all regards:

In a wide-ranging interview with the Independent Journal Review, Mr Tillerson said: "I didn’t want this job. I didn’t seek this job.

“My wife told me I’m supposed to do this.”

Mr Tillerson, who turns 65 on Thursday, said he had never met Donald Trump before their meeting in December when the then-president asked to talk to him “about the world”...."I’m not a big media press access person," he told the IJR. "I personally don’t need it. I understand it’s important to get the message of what we’re doing out, but I also think there’s only a purpose in getting the message out when there’s something to be done."

Throughout his 41-year career Mr Tillerson has perhaps been best known for the decades he spent driving the company's expansion in Russia - experience he was reluctant to discuss in the interview.

"He was so cagey when Russia came up, for example, that his answer wasn’t even worthy of inclusion," the reporter, Erin McPike, wrote.

Beijing (CNN)It's the US President's preferred weekend pastime and one he's used to strike up a rapport with other world leaders.

But few expect Donald Trump to tee off with Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, in Florida this week.Trump will host Xi at his exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach on April 6 and 7, but any suggestion of an outing to the nearby Trump-owned golf courses is likely to land in the rough.Xi, an avid soccer fan, isn't known to be a golfer -- and he's been waging a war on the sport in his country.Since he came to power nearly five years ago, Xi's government has shut down scores of golf courses across China and effectively banned the 88 million members of the ruling Communist Party from playing."For Xi, golf is just such a touchy topic back home, saddled with so much baggage -- the optics would be awful, with or without Trump," said Dan Washburn, author of "The Forbidden Game: Golf and the Chinese Dream," a book on the tumultuous history of golf in China."It's a symbol of the corruption Xi has been railing against," he added. "It represents a lot of the things he has spent much of his presidency fighting, so it's hard to envision the government embracing the game any time soon -- at least publicly."http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/02/polit ... wont-work/

There is, of course, a lot of speculation about what Trump's actual stance will be regarding China but with the way things are going for Trump, I think it can easily become a disaster...I doubt there will be any real tough stance taken against China given the still heavy reliance on the country. China can easily "trump" any talk of trade deficits with the amount of investment they bring to the US...There is also speculation, of course, about how much the short-fingered vulgarian is indebted to the Chinese, maybe even more so than Russia!I found this interesting also:

Trump eyes closer ties with Vietnam ahead of China talksPresident Trump told Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang on Friday that he wants to expand cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation on trade and regional issues.

Trump made the overture in a letter to Quang one week before he meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to the Vietnamese government's website.

Trump's letter affirmed "his wishes to promote cooperation on economics, trade, regional and international issues," according to a statement.

There have been increased tensions between Vietnam and China over the South China Sea in recent years after China began building island fortresses there. Many of the small islands where China is building its installations are claimed by Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei.

Trump said last week that he expects the meeting with President Xi to be a difficult one. South China Sea concerns are expected to come up, along with a host of trade issues.

Tough talk, which I think he gets off on, but I am betting they will buckle to China with just some weak "sanctions" on companies doing business with NorKor...

Trump says US is ready to act alone on North KoreaPOTOMAC FALLS, Va. (AP) — President Donald Trump says that the United States is prepared to act alone if China does not take a tougher stand against North Korea's nuclear program.

Trump's comments in an interview with the Financial Times come just days before he is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in South Florida. The two are expected to discuss a number of issues, including North Korea, trade and territorial disputes in the South China Sea during their meeting on Thursday and Friday.

"Yes, we will talk about North Korea," Trump told the newspaper for a story that appeared Sunday on its website. "And China has great influence over North Korea. And China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won't. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don't it won't be good for anyone."

A State Department spokesman said late Sunday that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has been in touch with a top Chinese official about the upcoming trip.

"We can confirm Secretary Tillerson spoke today by telephone to Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi regarding this week's visit of President Xi and other issues of bilateral and regional importance," the spokesman said. He discussed the upcoming visit on condition that his name not be used.

In his interview, Trump said trade was the incentive for China to work with the United States. Still, he said the United States could "totally" handle the situation in North Korea without China's help.

Asked how he would tackle North Korea, Trump said: "I'm not going to tell you. You know, I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East."

While China provides diplomatic and economic support to its neighbor, it claims that its influence over Kim Jong Un's government is limited.

The relationship between the United States and China has been uncertain since Trump's election. During his campaign he accused China of unfair trade practices and threatened to raise import taxes on Chinese goods and declare Beijing a currency manipulator, though it is unclear whether Trump will follow through with either threat.

Trump told the newspaper that he doesn't "want to talk about tariffs yet, perhaps the next time we meet."

Trump's ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, also offered tough talk on China, saying on ABC's "This Week" that the U.S. is pressing China to take a firmer stand regarding North Korea's nuclear program.

U.N. resolutions have failed so far to deter North Korea from conducting nuclear and missile tests. Last year, the North conducted two nuclear tests and two dozen tests of ballistic missiles.

"They need to show us how concerned they are," Haley said. "They need to put pressure on North Korea. The only country that can stop North Korea is China, and they know that."

Asked what the U.S. would do if China doesn't cooperate, Haley said: "China has to cooperate."

Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter, however, said he doubted that Beijing will cooperate.

"I've been working on the North Korea problem since 1994," Carter said on ABC. "And we have consistently asked Chinese leaders ... because they uniquely have the historical and the economic relationship with North Korea, to make a difference.

"I'm not going to tell you. You know, I am not the United States of the past where we tell you where we are going to hit in the Middle East."Well fuckface, I hope you are least going to hit NorKor in that case and not, say, Cambodia...

In response to what it perceives as an incursion by the US Navy (USN), Beijing has deployed vessels and fighter aircraft to the South China Sea, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirmed late on 2 July.

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang, the military assets were deployed to warn a USN vessel, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem , which was said to be trespassing what the Chinese refers to as the Xisha Islands, or the Paracel Islands as it is known internationally.

He has, however, not given any details on the number nor types of vessels or aircraft deployed. The Paracel Islands are claimed by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam as part of their respective maritime territories.

A report carried on USNI News on the same day, citing US Pacific Fleet spokesperson Lieutenant Commander Matt Knight, confirmed that Stethem passed by Triton Island in the Paracel Islands chain on 2 July in what the United States refers to as a freedom of navigation (FoN) operation. "We conduct routine and regular [FoN operations], as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future," said Lt Cdr Knight.

China has described the move as a "serious political and military provocation" that "infringed upon China's sovereignty, disrupted peace, security, and order of the relevant waters and put in jeopardy the facilities and personnel on the Chinese islands".

Trump advisers try to focus the president's attention on Asia tripThe president faces a series of delicate situations as he travels through the region on his longest trip yet.President Donald Trump has been holed up in a series of rapid-fire briefing sessions on his upcoming 12-day, five-country tour through Asia — an effort the White House hopes will help avoid the kind of diplomatic snafus that have dogged his presidency.

The trip — Trump’s longest yet — comes at a tense moment in Asia, with the threat of the North Korea nuclear program looming. But some of Trump’s advisers believe the time away from Washington will offer the president, who leaves Friday, a brief respite from the Russia-related revelations that have consumed him in recent days.

Trump’s top advisers — including national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer — have met with the president in recent days to go over details of the trip, including in an hourlong briefing Friday in the Oval Office, according to administration officials. Top aides have sought to keep the briefings short to avoid overloading the president with details but have scheduled dozens of them to plan public remarks and outline what he should say about North Korea on defense and China on trade.

“We’ve kind of tried to do it in pieces so it’s easy to keep up with,” said another administration official, adding that National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and Defense Secretary James Mattis have also briefed the president.

There are numerous ways Trump’s team could run into protocol problems in Asia, where many countries place a premium on proper behavior, said former U.S. officials who specialized in the subject.

The rules cover everything from what colors to wear (avoid all white, because it signifies sorrow) to the proper way to accept a business card (with both hands, look the giver in the eye and never put the card in your back pocket).

....Trump’s advisers have clashed for months over the specifics of his Asia strategy, most notably when it comes to trade, even as the National Security Council is in the midst of crafting a more cohesive China strategy.

Hard-line China critics like White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon have been pushing back against more moderate aides, who have warned against imposing steep tariffs on Chinese exports.

The news that Navarro will not be going on the trip has sparked concern among China hawks, who view Navarro’s status in the administration as a signal that Trump will be too soft on China during the trip, a move that they believe could play into Xi’s hands just days after he was elevated to the same status as Mao Zedong.

On that trip, President Trump’s first visit to China — the country that he has repeatedly criticized for trade practices and the way it has handled relations with North Korea — the administration will be taking some 40 U.S. companies on a trade mission to forge deals and discuss Chinese investments in the U.S.

One of the biggest deals up for discussion is an investment of around $7 billion by an alliance including China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, for an oil pipeline in Texas and an expansion of an oil storage facility in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Bloomberg reports, quoting a person familiar with the proposal. The deal is likely to be in the form of a non-binding memorandum of understanding, not a definitive contract. According to insiders, the investment will still need a final go-ahead by both the U.S. administration and China.

And NorKor?? Ultimately, rhetoric aside, Trump will have to do what every other president has done...

But ultimately, it comes down to time and whether the administration that blasted its predecessor’s policy of strategic patience has the patience for its own peaceful pressure campaign on North Korea to work.

At this point, its urgent rhetoric “is inconsistent with the time required for the tools they are using — economic sanctions and diplomacy — to produce results,” Schake said, calling it a “timeline problem” that leaves the Trump administration “not likely to succeed on this line of policy.”

The press is saying that it will be a tiring trip for Trump, so perhaps there will be some choice unscripted moments since he hates being on the leash. I am worried that NorKor will try to lob a missile his way while in Japan...Very interested to see what happens in Vietnam. He is visiting central Vietnam and then Hanoi, so I won't have a chance to flip off his motorcade here in Saigon...

Speaking of which, looks like China and Vietnam are making nice. Vietnam is great at forgiving and forgetting, and could really use more Chinese money in real estate and tourism...

Beijing says it peacefully resolved a South China Sea dispute with Vietnam

China and Vietnam have reached an agreement on managing their dispute in the South China Sea through friendly talks, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Friday, following an ugly spat over the summer between the two communist neighbors.

The countries have long been at loggerheads over the strategic waterway, through which more than $3 trillion in cargo passes every year, with Vietnam having emerged as the most vocal opponent of China's claims to the majority of the regional sea.

A scheduled meeting between their foreign ministers in August was cancelled on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Manila amid an argument about militarization in the South China Sea and island-building.

Hanoi and Beijing, however, have sought to get relations back on track, with a top Chinese leader telling his Vietnamese hosts in September that their two communist parties have a "shared destiny". Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met senior Vietnamese officials in Hanoi this week.https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/03/south-c ... etnam.html

Dialing back the rhetoric on NorKor and no chest-thumping on the DMZ line...

@dougmillsnyt

White Senior Staff stand outside the limo as @realDonaldTrump attempted to make a surprise, unscheduled visit to the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea this morning. The trip was foiled by a bad weather call and his helicopter could not fly.